Dance of the Fireflies
by Joyie
Summary: Set in the fictional city of Makimachi, Japan, three very different young women are brought together by fate and embark on a journey of self discovery together. (AU Story)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I am in no way affiliated with Natsume or the creators of Harvest Moon. I do no claim ownership of the character names etc. The city of Makimachi in which the majority of this story will be set is purely fictional.**  
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**Author's Note:** So I finally broke my bought of writer's block, but instead of being able to work on BIMY, I found myself writing the AU story I had been thinking of writing a long time ago. I felt particularly inspired because of my own experiences in Japan and thought it would be a good idea to draw on those feelings and memories here in my writing. Everything that happens within this story is purely fictional, but I'm not going to lie and say that certain aspects have been inspired by events in my life here. I hope you enjoy this first chapter and I appreciate any reviews or comments you want to leave me. Reviews help motivate me.

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**Chapter One**

_Lillian_

The 'Ekimae Scramble', as it was affectionately known as by the occupants of Makimachi, was the busiest intersection in the whole of the city. When the lights went red, the whole crossing was covered with people, like marbles spilling out of a box. They walked briskly, with purpose, and the flow of human traffic was almost never ending.

I arrived in Makimachi at the busiest time of the day. The morning rush hour. I stood on the sidewalk looking up at the giant TV screen that was mounted to the building opposite the main city train station. The face of a beautiful Japanese woman advertising some sort of skin lotion looked down at me, smiling warmly as if she were welcoming me to her country. Blinking, I wrenched my eyes away from the screen and looked around me in wide-eyed amazement. Having grown up in a small town in America, the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle was as frightening to me as it was exciting and I felt my head spin. It was so far removed from what I was used to back in Indiana that I found myself gaping at each new thing that I noticed. Doll-like women with scary high heels and tiny skirts. Little old ladies dressed in traditional kimono, carrying cabin sized travel cases behind them. Young men with gelled hair that looked like they'd walked straight out of an anime. It all seemed so completely alien to me.

I heard an elderly businessman grumble behind me as the walking light turned green and I still didn't move. Remembering where I was, I turned around and grimaced apologetically at him before looking down at the piece of paper in my hand with the address of my new apartment on it. I glanced up at the street sign across the road from me; it was all in kanji. I didn't know any Japanese yet and I had no idea of where I needed to go. As the reality of my situation hit me, my vision began to blur and I took a deep, shaky breath to control my tears. I could feel peoples' eyes on me as they walked passed me, staring at me as if I were some sort of out of place exhibit in a museum. I looked and felt exhausted and I was struggling not to cry.

"Are you okay?" I heard someone ask in accented English. Blinking my tears away and looking to where the voice came from, I found myself staring up at a tall Caucasian man with a shock of white-blonde hair. Smartly dressed with a violin case slung over his shoulder, he looked as out of place as I did. I noticed that his eyes behind thin framed spectacles were an odd shade of grey-blue and they brought back memories I'd thought I'd long forgotten. I was so entranced that I must have stared a bit longer than I should have and growing impatient he pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose before asking, "Nihongo hanasemasu ka?"

"No," I replied in English, shaking my head. "I don't speak any Japanese whatsoever."

"You're new here, huh," he commented, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled down at me. He was much taller than me, and I had to crane my neck to look up at him as he stood next to me on the sidewalk.

Realising that this was my chance to get help, I thrust the piece of paper in my hands towards him. "I need to get here, but I have no idea how."

"Okay, let me see," he said, taking the piece of paper and readjusting his spectacles as he read it. He scanned the address and frowned, pursing his lips thoughtfully before handing the paper back to me. "I have a vague idea about where this is. We need to get the subway though, unless you're willing to take the taxi. That would be easier."

"Um…" I began bashfully, my eyes darting downwards. "I don't really have enough cash on me for a taxi right now."

He laughed. "You're just like I was!" I glanced up at him questioningly and he added, "Totally disorganised!"

"Please don't laugh at me," I said, my cheeks growing warm as another wave of Japanese commuters walked passed.

"Look, let me help you get there," he said good-naturedly. "I actually need to go in that direction anyway." He turned his head slightly and gestured towards what looked like a subway entrance. "We need to go there."

As if it were completely natural, he took my suitcase from my hand and began carrying it towards the subway entrance, striding ahead of me confidently that I had to half-run to keep up with him. The Japanese masses seemed to part for him so easily, as if they were deliberately avoiding him, and I couldn't help but notice the way that some of them women were staring at him. Of course, I understood why. He was tall, attractive, and had an air of confident sophistication about him. Usually I steered clear of men like him, but I could understand why so many women were unable to resist staring at him.

"You don't need to carry that," I exclaimed, running to catch up with him. He made my suitcase look like it was as light as a feather when I knew for a fact that it weighed a tonne. "I can carry it myself."

"You're a girl," he said, turning to look over his shoulder at me. "Girls shouldn't have to carry heavy things."

I felt my cheeks grow warm as I watched his broad back navigate through the crowds. When we reached the stairs he picked the case up and started heading down them quickly, not missing a beat. As I watched him head towards the ticket machine, I wondered who he was and why he was being so nice to me. It was clear from the case he was carrying that he was a violinist, but I couldn't pinpoint his accent. He had what sounded like a European accent, but one that I couldn't quite place.

"Let me just grab you a ticket," he said, popping the suitcase down as he rummaged in his pockets for spare change.

"Oh, I have some coins…" I mumbled, beginning to sift through my pockets. "My friend gave me a bunch of Japanese coins that she had left over from her trip to Tokyo last year."

"No, its okay," he said, pulling out two one hundred yen coins.

I felt myself begin to frown as he popped his two coins into the machine and a small ticket stub was ejected from it. "You're being so nice to me… I could have at least paid for my ticket."

"You can pay me back later," he said with a dashing smile as he passed me the ticket. I took it and he began to head towards the turnstiles that lead down to the subway, not stopping to wait for me as he went through the turnstile with my luggage.

"Hey, wait!" I called out, getting caught up in the crowd. People were swarming all around me and I found it hard to dodge the oncoming traffic as deftly as he could.

Hearing me call out, he paused and looked over his shoulder. "Hm?"

"Can you explain to me where we're going?" I asked, slightly out of breath as I caught up with him. We boarded the escalator down to the platform together, which allowed me to catch my breath back.

"We're getting the Nakanashi Line towards Aibacho, which is the closest stop to that address," he said in a matter of fact tone. He then sighed and said, "Sorry, I totally forgot my manners." He turned around as much as he could and stuck his hand out towards me. "My name is Mikhail. I probably should have told you that before grabbing your suitcase."

Unable to fight back a smile, I took his hand and shook it. His grip was firmer than I was expecting and I had to readjust my own to mirror his confidence. I wondered just how much older he was. He looked like he might have been in his late twenties to early thirties, but his whole aura made me think that maybe he was even older than that.

"My name is Lillian," I said with the brightest smile I could muster. "I'm from the US."

"I figured as much," he said, raising his eyebrow. "Pretty obvious from your accent."

"And where are you from?"

"You can't tell?" he asked.

"Not at all. I'm not good with accents that aren't American. I don't usually travel much."

"Well flying here from America is a pretty big change from that," he said as he stepped off of the escalator and strode towards platform one. "I'm from Russia originally, but I travel a lot and I've lived in England and America before."

"And now you're in Japan," I said. I have to admit, I was impressed. Maybe he really was much older? "What do you do? Are you a musician?"

He smiled wryly and patted his violin case. "I'm a violinist. I play with the Makimachi orchestra occasionally, though my goal is to become a professional composer at some point."

"I figured you were a violinist from the case you're carrying," I replied with a knowing smile.

Mikhail nodding instead of verbalising a response. The train pulled up at the station and as we shuffled on, squeezing onto the busy train as best we could, I found myself pressed up against him uncomfortably while he held onto one of the hanging supports above. I was so perturbed by how cramped it was on the train that I found myself avoiding eye contact with him, and as the train lurched forward I had to grab onto him for support. Without even looking down at me, he momentarily let go of my suitcase to steady me, his hand taking my elbow with the same firmness he'd shown me with his handshake. He didn't seem particularly bothered by the whole situation and simply smiled down at me once I'd finally caught my balance. I nodded in silent thanks and reached around him to grab the pole behind him so I wouldn't need to grab him again, but because of the distance I had to step even closer to him. Trying my best to look away as I found myself staring directly at his chest, I began watching a mother who was sitting down with her young son.

The mother was dressed very elegantly, wearing a black mini-dress and satin pumps. Her hair was curled to perfection and her make-up was immaculately done. She was beautiful, but it was very clear that she worked very hard to look that way. In comparison, her son was dressed in designer children's clothes, but his t-shirt was covered in what I could only assume were jam stains, while his hair looked unbrushed and matted as if he hadn't bathed for a couple of days. Finding it an odd picture, I found myself frowning in their direction as I watched the interaction between mother and son. The son seemed eager to get his mother's attention, but she seemed far more interested in playing with her smart phone, occasionally pausing to readjust her false eyelashes before reprimanding her son for not behaving properly.

"You like children, don't you?" Mikhail asked suddenly, causing me to jump.

I looked up at him in surprise and upon seeing how close our faces were I quickly looked away again in embarrassment. "Yeah. I've always loved kids. It's part of the reason I'm here."

"English teacher?"

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "How did you know I wasn't just a tourist?"

"Most foreigners who come to Makimachi city are here to work. It's a great place to live, but it isn't really much of a tourist destination," he explained. "And most foreigners are here to teach English."

"I see."

"Though it's mostly foreign _men_ who live in Makimachi," he added. "If you look at the ratio between foreign men and foreign women, there are a lot more men than women. Most of the ladies go to bigger cities."

"I've read a lot about the different stereotypes there are about foreigners here," I commented. "I try not to believe them though. I'd rather see it for myself."

"Now that's rare," Mikhail replied. "There are a lot of women here who tend to believe the stereotype very easily after being here for only a short time."

"Yes, well, I'm sure there are a lot of men who believe the stereotypes about foreign women," I said. "I'm prepared for that at least."

"I'm sure only the good stereotypes apply to you," he said sweetly, causing me to look up at him again.

"You're quite the charmer, aren't you?" I replied in almost challenging tone.

He laughed. "I'm only charming when I want to be."

"Hmm," I murmured, staring up at him suspiciously. He smiled down at me mischievously and as we stared at one another I felt the corners of my own mouth begin to curl.

Before we could say anything else, the train announcer suddenly said, "Aibacho. Aibacho desu."

"Ah, this is it," Mikhail said with a flourish as the doors opened and the both of us were forced out by the crowd of people also getting off at that station. As I was shoved aside by a grumpy looking businessman, I lost my balance again and began to tumble forward unsteadily. Before I could fall further, I was caught by a pair of strong arms wrapping themselves around my waist. I turned to look at who caught me and when I saw Mikhail scowling in outrage in the direction of the businessmen I felt my heart lurch in my chest.

"What a moron," Mikhail mumbled as he helped me get my balance back yet again. "The Japanese are perfectly pleasant people, but when they're in the middle of their daily commute they will not hesitate to push you out of the way. No manners."

I straightened my clothes out and awkwardly rubbed my waist. He'd grabbed me pretty hard. "Thanks," I mumbled.

"Are you okay?" he asked glancing down at me in concern.

"I'll be alright," I replied, forcing myself to look cheerful. Truthfully though, I was quite shaken by what had just happened. Not simply because of how shocking the other man's behaviour was, but because of how oddly comforting it was to have the charming Russian's arms around me. It left me feeling more flustered than I had imagined I would. "Thank you," I said again, hoping my face wasn't too red.

"You're welcome," he said with a nod before turning to look at the exit signs. "We need exit three. That will come out in front of Aiba-jingu. A shrine."

"A shrine?" I parroted dumbly.

"Yes," Mikhail said. "There's a famous shrine dedicated to friendship near to that address you have. It's a really beautiful shrine, but not many people go there."

"Why's that?"

"Not entirely sure. The locals don't like to talk about it too much," he replied, looking confused. "I've tried asking, but most of the young people don't seem to know and the older generation seem to want to forget about it."

"Oh…" I said as we went through the turnstiles and headed for the elevator. "That's pretty cool that I'll be living near a shrine though."

"It's very calm there," he said with a nod. "Mostly elderly couples live around this area, so you shouldn't have to deal with the noises of the city quite as much."

Exiting the elevator, I blinked against the sudden light assaulting my eyes before smiling when I saw how quaint the street we were on looked. It wasn't a large street and it was clear that it was a simple residential area with only a few boutique type shops and a tiny supermarket. As he had said, it was quiet, with very little traffic, and I thought I could hear the sound of a nearby stream. Drinking in the foreign exquisiteness of it all, Mikhail led me down the street and I almost didn't register a couple of elderly women walking towards us in the opposite direction. They smiled and giggled to themselves when they saw us, bowing their heads slightly as Mikhail gave them a respectful nod.

After walking for a few minutes Mikhail stopped in front of an apartment building. "May I see the address again?" he asked. I showed him again and after scanning it briefly he handed it back to me. "This is the place."

I looked up at the apartment building and tried not to grin at how pretty it was. It looked well maintained, clean and there were only three floors. While it was quite an old building, it was freshly repainted with white paint and it was surrounded by mature trees that swayed almost musically in the breeze. The front entrance had two sets of glass doors and a wide staircase that led up to the floors above. Just to the left of the door were six metal post boxes, each labelled with Japanese characters which I assumed were names and hanging from the balconies above were futons, towels and other various garments that were put out to dry.

"Nice place," Mikhail commented. "Are you living by yourself?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm supposed to be sharing. I have no idea who they are though, so I hope they're nice."

"I'm sure they are," he said comfortingly. He then glanced at his watch. "Well, I think I should get going. It was a pleasure meeting you Lillian."

"Thank you so much," I said earnestly, grinning back at him as he flashed his dashing smile at me again. "I'm glad that there are some friendly people in this city. I would probably still be back at the train station if you hadn't saved me."

With practised ease, Mikhail put his hand into his jacket and pulled out a little business card. "If you ever need saving again, please don't hesitate to give me a call."

I took the business card and looked down at it curiously. "Thank you."

"I'm serious," he said gently. "Give me a call if you need any help."

"And if I don't need help?" I asked coyly.

"Give me a call anyway," he said with a laugh. "Ja, matta ne!" he exclaimed before turning and heading down the street again, his confident strides taking him back towards the subway station as I stared after him.

Once he was out of sight, I turned back to the apartment building and slowly headed towards the entrance. I saw that there were six buzzers that I could choose from and I glanced down at the address before pressing the button for apartment 1A. The intercom crackled to life a few moments later.

"Hai?" came a gruff male voice.

"Um, this is Lillian. I'm moving in today," I said into the intercom.

"Oh! Riri-san!" he exclaimed, his pitch changing instantly. "You here early than I thought."

"Yeah, someone helped me find this place," I said, smiling at his eagerness to use English.

"Sou nan da," he said. The door in front of me suddenly buzzed, giving me a bit of a fright as the man said, "Hai, douzo. Come inside and soon I will be out."

Unsurely, I pushed the door open and waited in the entrance hall with my suitcase, looking around at the neatly kept interior. Each floor appeared to be split in half, with two apartments to each floor. There were several pot plants decorating the area around the stairs and a large potted palm tree stood near the entrance to the apartment marked 1A.

A moment later the door to 1A opened and a giant of a man stepped out. Wearing a traditional Japanese jinbei, his hair in a top knot and an eye-patch over his left eye, I would have thought him quite comical to look at it if he wasn't built like a tank. He shuffled some papers in his hands before looking up at me searchingly. He paused for a moment, appraising me with his one eye before he nodded and outstretched his hand towards me.

"Nice to meet you. I am Mako. This is my building," he said, shaking my hand vigorously after I offered mine. "Did you have a good journey to Japan?"

"It was relatively comfortable, but it was very long."

"Ah yes, it cannot be comfortable. I understand," he said. "Now, I'm sure you want to go to your new home, yes?"

Nodding enthusiastically, I replied, "Very much so."

"Ja," he said, before heading up the stairs. I noted that Mako didn't offer to help with my suitcase the way Mikhail had and I struggled to lug it up the flights of stairs that led to the top floor. By the time we reached the top, I was red-faced and out of breath. Leaning against the railings, I watched as Mako pulled out a set of keys and put them into the front door of the apartment marked 3B.

"You will share with two girls," Mako began as he opened the first lock. "One is a British woman who works same school as you. Other is my niece, Reina. Reina is very smart girl. She will look after you."

Once both locks were opened, Mako proudly pushed open the door and I peered into my new apartment. Now, I have to be honest, I wasn't sure I liked what I saw.

The interior itself was open-plan and modern, with lots of windows that let large amounts of light in. There were many mirrors and the dark wood floor looked freshly polished, giving it a very sleek look. With a fitted kitchen that featured a lot of chrome and off-white cabinets, it looked far more luxurious than I was expecting. The only problem I had with the place was the amount of plants. There were plants and trees and flowers everywhere. Two large potted palms similar to the one in the entrance hall loomed in the corner near one of the doors off to the side and several varieties of exotic looking flowers covered nearly all the surfaces. The explosion of colours didn't seem to match the modern style of the apartment. When looked up at the ceiling, I had to fight back the urge to grimace when I saw that there were several vine plants creeping up the walls and across the netting that hung from the ceiling. When I had agreed to move in I'd had no idea that I would be moving into a tropical rain forest. I was about to turn around and ask Mako about all the plants when one of the other doors opened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_Lillian_

A tiny woman stepped out of the room. She was dressed in an oversized white blouse, with her dark hair falling around her shoulders, framing a delicate face that peered back at me suspiciously. Incredibly pretty, with pale skin and a petite stature; I immediately assumed she was Japanese. But then our eyes met and my breath caught in my throat. Hidden under dark long lashes were eyes that were a peculiar shade of jade green. Those green eyes appraised me unabashedly and her small mouth twitched as I forced myself to smile at her. That face and those eyes together made her quite stunning; she was unmistakeably Japanese, but her eyes clearly gave her away as being only half.

"Riri-san, this is Reina," Mako introduced proudly, smiling across at Reina. "She is like my daughter."

"I-It's lovely to meet you Reina," I replied, giving her a very awkward sort of bow.

Reina frowned at me for a moment before placing her hands on her lap. In one fluid movement, she slowly bowed from her waist as she said in a quiet voice, "Hajimemashite." As she bowed, her hair fell forward and covered her face like two silky dark curtains. It was a move that was so elegantly executed that I suddenly felt overwhelmed by my white girl awkwardness.

Mako cleared his throat and put the paperwork down on the kitchen counter before turning to his niece. He said something to her in Japanese, his tone instantly becoming harsher and more authoritative as he switched back to his mother-tongue. Once he was done, he turned back to me and handed me an envelope. I took it and I could feel my apartment key inside. "This your key. Please take care and don't lose it. It is very nice to meet you. I'm sure you make friends with Rei-chan easy."

"Thank you," I said with a bright smile.

He gave a short bow and left, closing the door behind him and leaving me alone with Reina. I turned back to her with as friendly a smile as I could muster, but she simply stood staring at me as if I were some sort of alien that had landed from out of space. I couldn't tell if she was fascinated with me or disgusted.

Feeling rather awkward under her scrutiny, I looked around the room and said, "This is a beautiful apartment. How long have you lived here?"

"I started living here shortly after Uncle Mako finished renovating it," Reina replied.

"Well he did a fantastic job. It's so modern and clean," I said forcing myself to be more cheerful than I felt. "It's surprisingly big too. I always thought Japanese apartments were meant to be small."

"Space is only an issue if you don't have money." She looked me up and down once before adding, "Fortunately, rent for this place is quite cheap since we're sharing between the three of us."

I nodded, though I was beginning to wonder if she was trying to imply that I was poor. Brushing aside the comment I asked, "So which room is mine?"

Reina made a face, wrinkling her nose in a way that made me think that she was irritated by something. After a short pause, she slowly began to head towards the door that was next to her own. She opened it and revealed a sparsely decorated room, with a large window that faced the back of the apartment. I gasped in delight when I saw the view. The apartment was situated at the top of a hill which overlooked the city, and in the distance I could see the mountains that landlocked Makimachi to the north while the sea locked it to the east.

"Wow," I sighed. "This view is..." I trailed off, lost for words. I fought with myself as I tried not to squeal with delight.

"It would be better if the city had been designed in a more orderly fashion. I'm not a huge fan of the city planner who decided to put that ugly industrial district right at the heart of the city," Reina commented, her voice monotonous and flat.

"So, can I do whatever I want with this room then?" I asked brightly.

Reina nodded slowly. "Sure, I guess." She paused and looked around the room before asking, "You don't smoke, do you?"

"Definitely not."

"Oh good," Reina said with the faintest hint of a smile. She was even more gorgeous when she smiled. I had to stop myself from gawking. "I'm glad the plants won't have to endure that again. It was so hard getting Anita to stop."

"So the plants outside are yours?" I asked.

Appearing almost proud, Reina nodded once before explaining, "I'm studying plant biology at university right now."

The jungle outside finally made sense. "Are you an undergraduate student?"

"No," Reina replied, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm studying for my doctorate."

I was taken aback by this. "Oh. I'm sorry. It's just that you look so young. I thought you were maybe an undergraduate student."

"I'm twenty three," Reina said, looking away. "I'm a year into my studies already."

Trying to do the math in her head, my eyes widened as realisation hit me. "So you started your undergraduate study when you were sixteen?"

Looking extremely uncomfortable, Reina was reluctant to reply. She ran a hand through her dark locks before waving through the door of the room. "Let me show you the rest of the apartment."

Realising that she needed the reprieve from the subject, I nodded and followed her out of the room and across the living area. She opened a door on the opposite side of the apartment that led into a spacious looking bathroom. Covered in gleaming white tiles, with a large frosted window, it was a bright and obviously well cleaned room. I could smell the faint scent of oranges and noticed a bottle of cleaning solution tucked away in the corner with a pair of rubber gloves.

"We take it in turns to clean the bathroom every week," Reina explained. "And we all use the same shampoo, so we take it in turns to buy it too. There's a Sugiyama drug store nearby where we buy all our cosmetics, soaps and washing up things, so there's no excuse not to buy the refills when they're needed. We all have our own towels and we store them in this cupboard here." She went to a built in cupboard to the side and opened it to reveal piles of neatly folded towels and linens. "Clean things go in here." She then closed the door and pointed to the towel rack mounted to the wall near the window. "Wet towels go there."

"Right," I said with a nod, glancing at her curiously. She looked so serious about it all that I couldn't stop myself from letting out a small giggle.

"What's so funny?" she asked accusingly.

I shook my head and tried to shrug it off. "Nothing, don't worry."

Muttering something under her breath in Japanese, she left the room and sauntered across the living area towards the kitchen. She bent down to open a couple of cupboards and I saw that they were completely empty. "You can store your food stuffs in here. Anita and I have been sharing pretty much everything though, so if you're happy to share, just let us know."

Curious, I asked, "So are you and Anita are close?"

Again, Reina wrinkled her nose. "I wouldn't say we're close."

"Then what would you say?"

She frowned. "We're roommates. We have simply learned to co-exist."

I'm not sure why, but part of me already saw quite early on that Reina was trying to keep herself distanced from me. I could almost feel her pushing me away with her words, drawing the line between us that I was not allowed to cross. I forced myself to smile before changing the subject. "How did your English get so good then? You speak English like you're a native speaker."

"I study hard," she replied, again with a very flat tone.

"Well, that much is obvious," I said, casting my eyes up towards the creeping vines on the ceiling. "You've got quite the plant collection here."

Ignoring my comment, she picked up the papers on the kitchen counter and shuffled through them. She pulled out a set of papers that were printed on blue paper before handing them to me. "These are your lease agreement papers. Please sign them and put them through my uncle's post box by tomorrow morning. There are two copies; one for you and one for him. Please make sure you read through them thoroughly. Since this is your first month, my uncle has agreed to take your first month's rent out of your first pay check. So you'll have a couple of weeks to get your bank account set up. I think Anita or Mr. Bones will help you with that." She glanced up at me briefly as I took the papers and looked through them. "Do you think you can manage that?"

Did she think I was stupid? I frowned at her. "Yes, of course."

"Well, that's it for now," she said, putting the remainder of the papers down on the counter and sliding them towards me. "Anita will be home in a couple of hours, so she can answer your other questions."

"Okay," I replied. I wasn't really sure what else to say, the sheer unfriendliness radiating off of this woman was unmistakeable and I didn't have the energy to break through that large wall she was clearly keeping between us.

"I'm going back to my room to study," Reina said, the tone of finality unmistakeable.

With that, she went into her room and closed the door firmly behind her, leaving me standing alone in the middle of the otherwise empty apartment. As I looked around at my new home, I felt a strange sense of loss settle in my stomach. Again, I was hit by the feeling of being isolated, alone and without a friend or ally to turn to for help if anything went wrong. It scared the crap out of me. Suddenly, I felt my stomach lurch. Covering my mouth with my hand, I dashed to the bathroom. Throwing up the toilet seat and hanging my head over the bowl, I emptied the contents of my stomach. Spluttering messily, tears sprung to my eyes and I began to sob in between retches.

Part of me expected Reina to come out of her room and check on me because of all the noise I was making, but she never did. The only sound I could hear was the sound of my body rejecting all the food I'd eaten on the plane and this made me cry harder. What was I doing there? Did I really think I could survive in Japan by myself? I questioned my decisions and berated myself; my mind fighting itself while my body dealt with the consequences. After I was finished, I sat on the floor of the bathroom and cried for what felt like an hour.

Before coming to Japan, I had lived in a very small town. I knew all my neighbours and I had known my friends since we were small children. Living in a large family with two older sisters, a younger brother and a handful of cousins that lived in the neighbourhood, I was never really alone and for the longest time I thought I had actually wanted to be left by myself. I craved the peace and quiet of solitude and cursed my overbearing, interfering family. While it wasn't my main motivation for coming to Japan, the idea of being in a new country where I knew nobody was so appealing to me that I didn't really think twice about my decision. I booked my flight, told my family, and left with very few regrets. It wasn't until that moment, as I sat on that squeaky clean bathroom floor, that I had my first true taste of solitude.

It was a bitter realisation. The words 'be careful what you wish for' came to mind and I let out a noisy wail of despair, crying harder when I realised that no one would come crashing into the bathroom to see what was wrong.

Finally, after what felt like a decade of crying, I managed to pick myself up off the floor. I stumbled over to the bathroom sink and glanced up at the mirror. I was a mess. My eyes were shadowed and salty tear stains ran down my cheeks. Pulling my hair back with one hand, I turned the tap on before practically putting my whole face under it. As I fought for breath against the water, I tried to wash away all my negative thoughts and anxieties, forcing myself to remember why I had decided to leave - why I needed it. It wasn't easy, but as the water flowed over my skin, I slowly regained my sense of self control. I imagined that the biting chill of the water was numbing me to my own loneliness and after a while I turned the tap off.

Standing upright, I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Beads of water slid down my face as I stared back at myself tiredly, my skin pink from the cold. Reaching up, I slapped both sides of my face hard and said, "Get a grip, Lil. Get. A. Grip."

After drying off my face with my shirt, I wandered into the living room and wheeled my suitcase into my room. I spent about an hour and a half unpacking. Mindlessly, I stored my clothes and shoes into the closet, put out my family photos and other decorative knickknacks. As I unpacked it dawned on me that my life up until that point had been filled with so many material things that I hadn't really needed. I would occasionally glance at the breath-taking beauty of the city outside my window, trying to remind myself that I'd made the right decision. Trying to convince myself I was happy.

Once I'd finished, I stumbled into the living room and picked up the magazine on the coffee table in the middle of the room. I flicked through it apathetically, not understanding any of the kanji, before sitting down on the couch and tipping my head back to stare at the plants above. Fixating on the way the vine wove itself around the netting; I suddenly felt my eyelids growing heavy. I tried to keep them open, trying to blink against the wave of fatigue hitting me, but it was impossible. Soon, my eyes closed completely and I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Thank you for the reviews. I'm glad you liked the first chapter. I'm trying my best to make this story as realistic as possible, channelling my own anxieties and emotions at the time when I first came to Japan to live. This chapter was quite difficult for me to write (hence why it's so short) because remembering those emotions brought back some pretty vivid memories. I had some problems writing Reina and actually had to completely re-write this chapter a couple of times before I was happy with it. In my head, she's very taciturn with new people and tries to push them away, but I'm afraid that maybe she came across as too bitchy in this chapter; at least from Lillian's POV anyway.

_ Mnema:_ Thanks for reviewing. Did you live in Japan or did you visit for a holiday? I don't really know that much Japanese, I'll only really use it to add flavour to the writing every now and then.

_ Lucy Kay:_ Thank you for saying that I've improved. I actually reread BIMY recently and I was a bit shocked at how much my writing style changed as I progressed through the story. Even now, I try to compare how I write now to how I wrote then and it seems so different! Thank you so much for reading DotF. Hopefully this will be as entertaining as BIMY!

_ teamBLAZE:_ I love Japan too! It's been such a great experience living here. I hope that through this story I can give you an insight into what it's like living here as a foreigner.

I will try to have a new chapter up as soon as possible!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

_Anita_

"Anita, what are you still doing here?"

I jumped in my seat and looked up to see my boss, Rose, had poked her head around the door of my classroom. She was frowning at me and I quickly stole a glance at the clock on the wall. "I-I'm almost done, I swear. I just have another four portfolios to mark," I told her.

Rose Bones was an elderly woman who must have been in her late sixties, possibly early seventies. Clearly once a great beauty, she still looked great for her age and barely looked a day over fifty. Her dark eyes peered around the classroom for a moment before she let out a sigh and opened the door completely.

"Yes, yes, dear. I know you need to finish your marking, but you needed to get home early tonight, didn't you?" she asked. "It's past eight already."

I stared blankly at her, not knowing what on earth she was talking about.

She rolled her eyes. "The new girl? Lillian?" I still continued to stare at her and she let out a frustrated sigh. "She arrives today!"

My eyes widened as I suddenly remembered. "Oh shit."

"Yes. 'Oh shit'," Rose repeated disapprovingly.

Closing the portfolio I had been working on, I hurriedly started to tidy my desk and gather my belongings to leave.

"Now, please don't frighten the poor girl," she continued. "Remember, we need her to stay. I don't think the parents will be pleased if she decides to bolt after only a week."

I glanced up at her. "I can assure you, it won't be me who will frighten her. Have you spoken to Ina yet?"

Rose went stiff as if remembering something unpleasant. "Not yet."

"Well, you better do it before she starts," I told her warningly. "Otherwise the new girl really will bolt, and there's nothing I'll be able to do about it if that happens."

Frowning, the elderly woman said, "I'm sure Ina won't listen to me even if we do speak to her. You know what she's like."

"She needs to be reminded, nonetheless." I zipped up my work bag loudly before turning back to the older woman and giving her a brief bow as I said, "Otsukaresama deshita."

"Thank you for your hard work," Rose replied in English, beaming proudly at me.

I smiled briefly at her before leaving the room with her following behind me. I headed towards the staffroom and just as I pushed open the door, I heard Rose say somewhere down the corridor, "You're here too?!"

Pausing briefly, I turned to see which classroom she had stopped at and I felt every muscle in my body go rigid when I saw which. Stood in the doorway of the Dancing Dalmation class, I could hear Rose similarly chastising a K1 teacher for also working late. Since I'd already seen Iroha go home, I knew that it meant only one thing. That deep voice that I couldn't clearly hear but instantly recognised sent shocks through me as I felt an incomprehensible amount of panic rise in my chest; I had to leave. Immediately.

Hurrying into the empty staffroom, I stripped while shuffling towards my locker, pulling my work shirt over my head and wriggling out of my trousers as I opened my locker door. I dressed as quickly as I could; ignoring the pain I felt when my hair caught on one of the buttons on my shirt as I struggled to get my head through it. A film of perspiration formed on my top lip as I tried my best to speed through my 'go-home' routine. Makimachi in September was unpleasantly humid and even though it wasn't particularly hot the humidity was so high that even the slightest amount of physical movement caused me to sweat buckets.

Finally finished, I strode out of the staffroom at top speed. As I walked past the office area and towards the front doors of the school, I heard a voice call out to me.

"Annie! Wait!"

Deliberately ignoring it, I opened the front door and walked outside. The door slammed shut behind me noisily and I quickly changed to my outside shoes as I deposited my inside shoes into my allotted cubbyhole. I knew who it was who had called me, but I didn't care. There was no way I was going to wait.

Walking quickly to the subway station, I tried to shake off the guilt weighing on me and reminded myself that while I was meant to maintain a professional relationship with him, I could still be angry at him. I shouldn't have to feel guilty about ignoring him; after all, work hours were already over.

Pulling out my smartphone, I pulled open the Line messaging application and sent a message to Reina.

**Anita:** I'll be home in twenty minutes. Is she there?

Reina responded almost immediately.

**Reina:** Yes. She arrived three hours ago.

**Anita:** Have you spoken to her?

**Reina:** Yes.

**Anita:** And?

**Reina:** And what?

**Anita:** Jesus Christ. You were weird with her, weren't you?

**Reina:** No. I told her what she needed to know and went back to my room. I've got a paper to submit this Friday.

Locking my phone in frustration, I headed down the stairs into the station, completely unaware that someone was running to catch up with me. I had just reached the bottom of the stairs when suddenly someone from above shouted, "Anita Lawrence!"

With a jolt, I looked up at the top of the stairs and was horrified to see _him_ running down the stairs after me.

Dirk Brunner. An internal war was fought within me as I watched him bound down the steps towards me. His light brown hair fell around his face messily and his cheeks were red from running. His green eyes narrowed as he charged towards me, scowling accusingly in a way that made me cringe. When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs he paused and bent over briefly to catch his breath back, panting and puffing so hard that I knew he must have sprinted all the way to the subway station to catch up with me.

"What?" I asked.

His eyes widened in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" he wheezed.

"What is it?" I asked, pulling out my travel card and I headed towards the turnstiles.

He followed along behind. "You ignored me just now. I had to run all this way to catch up with you."

Feigning ignorance I asked, "When did I ignore you?"

"You're unbelievable," he grumbled, tapping into the turnstiles and heading down the escalator stairs towards the train platform ahead.

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't ignore you."

"Yes you did, don't lie," he snapped over his shoulder.

"I didn't!" I lied again.

Once we'd reached the platform, we both stood side by side in silence. An unpleasantly warm breeze rushed through the tunnel and I moved a strand of my hair out of my face, glancing surreptitiously up at him as I did. Catching him glance at me too, we both looked away in embarrassment. He started to clear his throat to speak but I spoke first.

"I have to get home early today," I told him, not looking at him and instead focusing my eyes on the billboard for a dental clinic that was in front of us.

He paused for a second before saying, "Oh."

"Lillian arrived today, so I have to like… talk to her or something," I explained. "Rose expects me to ease her into everything. I hope she'll be able to handle it."

"I'm sure she will be," he replied neutrally.

Once again, we fell into silence. I could tell he wanted to say something else; the words were on the tip of his tongue but something was holding him back. I knew what he wanted to say, and he knew I knew, but there was no way I was going to acknowledge it. It needed to remain unsaid.

We boarded the train when it arrived and sat next to each other without saying a word. It was an uncomfortable silence that I was dying to break, but couldn't bring myself to. What was I meant to say? Not wanting to think about it, I pulled out my smartphone and pulled up Line again to message Reina.

**Anita:** Be home in fifteen.

She didn't reply, but it registered that she'd read the message. Sighing, I put my phone away and looked up to see mine and Dirk's reflection in the window opposite. He was staring at me. It wasn't just a casual glance either, but a full on stare. Torn between my own embarrassment and anger, I looked away and shifted in my seat.

"How long are you going to stay mad at me?" he asked.

I folded my arms. "How long are you going to stay in Makimachi?"

Letting out a sigh of his own, he tilted his head back against the window and I found my eyes wandering to his exposed neck. It had grown broader than when I'd first met him. Not in a way that he'd gained weight or anything, but his once rather slender neck was thicker set and more defined; he wasn't that boy I remembered anymore. Tracing the line of his profile, my eyes slid over the angular bump of his chin, over his pronounced cupid's bow and up to his perfectly shaped nose. He was like one of those beautifully sculpted Roman busts I'd seen at the British Museum. A work of art, so to speak.

Tilting his head towards me, I fought my impulse to jump when suddenly he opened his eyes. Vivid green eyes stared back at me searchingly, as if they were trying to find the answer to all of his questions simply by looking into my own dark blue ones. As the train tilted and swayed along the tracks, I felt a magnetic pull somehow drawing me closer towards him as we stared into each other's eyes. Slowly, bit by bit, the space between us shrank until our faces were only a few centimetres away from each other.

Suddenly the train began to slow.

"Mamonaku Aibacho. Aibacho desu."

Coming to my senses, I pulled away and stood up from my seat. Shocked by my sudden movement, Dirk sat up straight and stared up at me in surprise.

"Annie, wait," he began as the train came to a full stop.

Moving towards the doors, I ignored him and walked through them as soon as they opened. As I strode across the platform to get to the exit, some part of me expected him to follow me. As I reached the ticket gate I looked over my shoulder to see that he hadn't. Instead, he was standing in the doorway of the train, watching me leave with a torn expression that caused my heart to twinge. I stood rooted to the spot as once again we couldn't take our eyes off each other. Then the doors to the train closed and he was whisked away.

Spell broken, I shook my head and touched my travel card to the turnstile. The walk home felt longer than usual, in spite of it only being a short distance. Turning over in my head what had just happened –almost happened- I groaned inwardly as I chastised myself for getting so close to making that mistake again. When I got home, I was in a weird mood. Looking to erase what had just happened from my mind, I wanted nothing more than to have a glass of wine and watch trashy television and I wasn't ready for what I saw when I opened the front door. Walking in with the expectation of being alone in the living area, I was greeting by the sight of a blonde girl sprawled on the sofa. With one leg hanging off of one of the armrests, her arms sprawled above her head and her mouth wide open as she emitted large, pig-like snores, it was probably one of the worst first impressions I'd ever had of someone. She really was snoring like an old man about to die.

"Oi, wake up," I said, loudly dropping my keys into the decorative wooden bowl by the door.

She woke up with a loud snort, sitting up in surprise with a look of complete panic spread across her face. "Huh?"

"Good evening," I said flatly as I dumped my work bag on the kitchen counter and pulled out two wine glasses from the overhead cabinet. "Red or white?"

"What?" she asked, blinking at me in confusion.

"I need a drink," I told her. "And you're going to join me."

She rubbed her eyes sleepily before asking, "Are you Anita?"

I pulled out a bottle of red wine from the fridge and poured some into both glasses. I took them over to the sofa area and handed one to her. "Nice to meet you." I raised my glass. "Kanpai."

She hesitantly raised her glass as well and repeated the Japanese word, quickly catching on its meaning. She watched me in wide eyed amazement as I downed the glass in one go before setting it down on the coffee table and taking a seat across from her. I ran a hand through my hair and closed my eyes briefly, inhaling and exhaling deeply as I tried to focus my mind.

Lillian politely sipped her wine before putting it down and asking, "Are you okay?"

I let out a dry laugh. "I was at work for twelve hours today. What do you think?"

"Twelve hours?" she asked in disbelief. "That wasn't in the contract."

"No. I worked overtime," I replied. "Unpaid overtime." Her eyes widened further and I smiled at her as I added, "I'm the head teacher and the K3 teacher, so I have lots to do. Don't worry, it's not compulsory to work overtime."

She visibly relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief. "Thank god. I don't think I'd be able to work twelve hour days." She smiled briefly before asking, "You're the head teacher?"

"Yes. I'm the native head teacher," I replied. "There's one native head teacher and one Japanese head teacher."

"So you're my boss?"

I shook my head. "In reality I'm just a nominal head teacher. For show. I control the scheduling though, which is one of the reasons I came home so late today. I had a ton of marking to do too. But, since I'm head teacher, I'm here for you if you need any advice or have questions you want to ask me about the job."

Lillian sat up, her eyes brightening with the enthusiasm all new teachers have when they first start the job. "Oh, that's great. And we're roommates too!"

"Has Reina spoken to you about the house rules?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah, I guess." With a quick glance at Reina's door she added, "She hasn't come out since then."

"I don't expect she will. She's working on a research paper at the moment. Busy girl. Freakishly smart."

"Is she always like that?" she asked.

I smiled, imagining how Reina probably behaved when Lillian arrived. "Don't mind her. She doesn't mean to be unfriendly, she's actually just very shy. There's a term over here that describes girls like her: tsundere. Basically, a girl who is cold to start with but later warms up to you and gets attached quite strongly. Just give her some time."

"She came across as more of a 'cool beauty' to me," Lillian replied with a smile.

"Oh, she's a beauty alright," I said. "She's got some hang ups about it though." I glanced at Reina's door, wondering if she could hear us talking about her, before turning back to Lillian. "So... tell me about yourself. No time like the present for you to start rehearsing your 'how you came to Japan' story."

Lillian shifted in her seat, her smile dropping for a second. "It's a long story."

"Shorten it then," I replied as I got up from the sofa and went to pour myself more wine.

"Well," she said with a sigh. "I'm pretty much running away from home. Trying to get as far away from my hometown as possible. Japan was as far away as I could get." She took another sip of her wine, nursing it thoughtfully as she watched me. I could tell she was trying to figure me out. I suppose my abrupt entrance and offering of wine was something of a surprise to her, but I figured that it was the easiest way to break the ice. I was so used to and bored of the whole, 'oh we're two foreigners in Japan' politeness that I'd experienced with nearly every gaijin I'd met since arriving - I wanted to break the monotony.

"So why are you here then?" she asked me once I'd returned to the sofas. "Is teaching a career for you?"

I let out a snort. "Hell no. I'm the same." I drank down a large gulp before adding, "I'm a runaway too."

We both fell into silence for a moment before I took another large sip of my wine and began, "So, I've been told by Rose, our boss, to give you the lowdown on the job and the situation you're walking into. Now, she wanted me to ease you into it, but I want to give you the choice: do you want me to be upfront about it or do you want me to give you the sugarcoated version?"

Without hesitating she said, "The truth and nothing but the truth."

I let out a sigh and put my wineglass down. "So, you know you're going to be the toddler teacher, yes? Well, you'll be taking over from the previous native toddler teacher in that class. There were some issues with his teaching ability that the parents were concerned about, so the Bones' decided to let him go."

Lillian nodded slowly. "What was wrong with his teaching?"

I paused for a moment, wondering if I should tell her or not. I stared at her, taking in the big blue eyes, blonde hair and rosy cheeks. Looking at her properly for the first time, she was quite pretty even though she looked exhausted. With a straight, slightly upturned nose, large doe eyes and fair skin, I could tell that she was going to get a lot of attention from the guys at work; she had an innocent, naive aura about her that made her seem almost childlike. To be honest, she wasn't the type of girl I had expected the Bones' to recruit; I had thought that maybe they'd want to appease the parents and hire someone with more experience whom the parents would trust with their children. An older matronly figure came to mind, but it was clear that Lillian was inexperienced and completely unaware of the duties of the job she was walking into. And yet, as she stared back at me with that earnest expression I could see that she wasn't simply some unskilled gaijin without a clue. There must have been a good reason they hired her over the other applicants.

"He threw one of the children into the air. He threw him too high and the kid hit his head on the ceiling," I said.

Her mouth fell open. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah," I replied tiredly. "And, unfortunately, Shotaro is one of the most talkative kids in the class, so he immediately told his mummy all about what happened. His parents were outraged and threatened to sue to the school unless they fired him. So, they fired him. It wasn't just that incident though; he wasn't a very good teacher. He tried really hard to learn how to improve, but he just doesn't have the right personality for working with kids."

Lillian frowned thoughtfully as she asked, "So there's pressure on me to do well?"

"Of course," I said with a nod. "And you've also got the joy of working with Ina. She's one of the most anal Japanese teachers on our staff right now."

"Oh, right, my Japanese co-teacher," she said. "What do you mean by anal?"

I grimaced. "She's very... traditional. One thing you need to understand about the Japanese staff is that they think the native staff, us, are incompetent. The majority of the Japanese staff have teaching or childcare qualifications, so they think it gives them license to boss the native staff around. I don't really deal with that much in my classroom since my partner, Kana, is so relaxed, but I know many of the other native teachers have to deal with it."

"Right." Lillian's frown turned into a scowl as she said, "You're not really selling this job to me, you know."

Shaking my head I said, "Hey, you said you wanted the truth." I paused for a moment before adding,

"It's a really hard job. I'm not going to lie. You're walking into a shit storm of work politics and gossip, as well as joining a class that is one of the hardest to control. But, the job has its perks."

"Okay, tell me the perks."

"Well, we get eight weeks paid holiday a year. No other Japanese school in Makimachi offers that many weeks. You get three off at Christmas, one off in the summer, one in the spring, as well as all the national holidays. You get an additional ten days off, which you're able to choose the dates of. You're also working with some of the coolest native teachers in the city," I said with a smile. "We're all pretty relaxed and hang out together after work. I have a feeling Cheryl is going to fall in love with you when she sees you."

"I can't wait to meet her…" Lillian said hesitantly. "Well, I hope I'm up to the job. I'll do my best."

"Don't worry, we're all here to support you. If you ever need help or if Ina's giving you shit, you tell me and I'll sort her out. I think I'm the only native teacher on staff that she's intimidated by," I replied.

She blinked. "Why?"

"I'll leave that story for another time. I'm sure Cheryl will tell you all about it at some point," I said. "So anyway, there are currently seven classes in the school. Four pre-school classes; two nursery and two toddler. Then there's K1, K2 and K3, which make up the kinder classes. For toddler, your classroom time starts at around nine thirty in the morning and finishes at two in the afternoon. After that, you'll be on daycare shifts, which I'll put you on with experienced teachers so you can learn the ropes from them."

"Is the teacher I'm replacing still at the school?" she asked curiously.

I nibbled my lip briefly before nodding. "Yes. He'll be at the school for another two weeks and then he'll be gone. We wanted him there so the children have the chance to say goodbye to him. As useless as he was, a lot of the kids liked him. We couldn't leave him alone with the children though, he was terrible at watching them. He'd just let two children fight and hit each other without intervening."

"So I need to watch the children at all times?" she asked seriously, as if she was trying to take mental notes.

I nodded. "Yeah. We can't always stop fights from happening but as long as we see how and what happened, we can explain the situation to the parents then it won't be an issue. If a child is injured in some way and you can't explain it, then the parents will get upset that we weren't watching the children properly. You're also responsible for writing up injury reports too, but don't worry about that, I'll walk you through it."

"Info dump," Lillian said, rubbing her forehead tiredly.

"Yeah, you and I should head to bed. I'm going to take you out shopping tomorrow. Show you were everything is and help you set up your bank account."

"That would be great, thanks," Lillian said with a tired smile.

"Go get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning," I said as I downed the last of my wine glass. I picked up her half-empty glass and returned both of them to the sink as I heard her get up to go to bed.

As she was about to go to her room, she turned around and said, "Thanks."

"Hey, don't worry about it," I said, not looking up as I started washing the glasses.

"No," she said. "I mean, thanks for being honest with me. I was kind of worried that things would be weird for you because we'll be working together as well as living together. You might get sick of me after a while."

"Oh trust me, you probably won't be on my list of top five people I'm sick of," I said with a dry laugh. "I'm caught up in work politics because of my job, so your arrival is a bit of a relief to me right now."

Lillian nodded before retreating to her room and I was left alone in the living area finally. I let out a tired sigh as I put the wineglasses on the drying rack. I still wasn't entirely sure what to make of Lillian. While I wanted to know more about her, I noticed how uncomfortable she was with my question about her reason for being in Japan. I could tell that, like me, the thing she was running away from was probably just as painful and awkward as my own reason. Since living here, I came up with the hypothesis that a large number of the foreigners who move to Japan to teach English are usually running away from home. While the reasons may vary, there is nearly always an element of escapism behind everyone's stories.

Around that time, I had no idea how much of an impact Lillian would have on my future. I initially just thought of her as a normal American girl. She didn't seem particularly extraordinary, nor did she seem at all weird. I suppose she probably thought the same about me.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hey! Sorry for the delay! I came home from Japan and I'm trying to get back into the swing of being back in the UK! I'm going to try and post more regularly from now on, so I appreciate any comments etc! They keep me motivated haha! But yes, thank you for reading!


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